I came from a small town in Pennsylvania - where 'style' was whatever was new at the Gap. Being on 'Ugly Betty' at such a crucial time in my life sparked my love for the industry.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
'Ugly Betty' taught me everything about fashion.
'Ugly Betty' has been four years of my life, important adolescent years. I think that all I've really known was getting pampered and interviewed and getting my picture taken.
From the time I was wee big, my mother was one of the first members of Mary Kay Cosmetics. Women going door-to-door and letting housewives have their own business - that was really a breakthrough. It was huge.
In the mid-nineties, diversity in the fashion/beauty business was hard to come by.
I grew up in New York, and I've always been surrounded by fashion. My grandmother used to write for 'Vogue' in the '50s, and my mother was a dancer and a model.
It was the late '70s when my parents met. My dad was a lighting director for a soap opera, and my mom was a temp at the studio. They moved into a house in The Valley in L.A., to a neighborhood that was leafy and affordable.
Growing up in New York, I loved watching my grandmother Estee put on her make-up - I always admired her sense of style.
I grew up in a show-business family, but we were working-class show business. There was nothing glamorous about it. You had great things one day and the next day, nothing.
I'm not so much surprised by the success of 'Ugly Betty' as I am feeling so blessed by it.
I grew up in a miniature village in the middle of the countryside in England, quite secluded from the outside world. I was always enamored by the fashion industry.